Diamonds and Dirt Roads

A pretend relationship… within a pretend relationship.

Attorney Evan Stone knows every crazy stipulation in billionaire Rudy Carmichael’s will. After all, he wrote it. And he’s determined to make sure each one is fully met by Rudy’s triplet daughters. Even if that means dating the workaholic CEO, Ava. Or pretending to at least. And even if it means resisting the so-right-for-him-she’s-totally-wrong party girl, Cori.

Cori’s only got three things on her to do list from her dad:

· Move to Bliss, Kansas.

· Run his pie shop with her sisters for a year.

· No dating. For six months.

But stepping in for her sister when it’s clear that Ava and Evan aren’t fooling anyone with their “romance” isn’t really dating. And falling for her sister’s pretend boyfriend while pretending to be her sister…well, that’s ridiculous. No matter how real things feel whenever she and Evan are together.

Excerpt

Cori opened her mouth, but had no idea what to say. She was going to be forced to inherit part of her father’s company? There was no way that was right. It was totally unfair to Ava and Brynn, for one thing. Ava had worked her ass off for the company since she’d been sixteen. Brynn had no interest in the business beyond the research and development branch where she worked as the lead scientist for their pharmaceutical companies, but she could at least fund her research with her third. But Cori…well, Cori not only had no interest in Carmichael Enterprises, but she had no talent, skill, or knowledge to bring to the company and she didn’t have any world-changing projects that she’d earmarked a few billion for.

Ava took a deep breath. “This is all or nothing, Cori. We all have to do it or it doesn’t matter.”

Cori focused on Evan instead, hoping he could make some sense out of this. Surely Ava was misunderstanding. Or overreacting. Or something. Because if that was true, then Cori was stuck. She’d do anything for her sisters. Which Rudy had, of course, known. And would have used if needed. She narrowed her eyes. “Can Dad actually make us do a bunch of stuff we don’t want to do?”

Evan nodded and Cori felt her heart drop.

“It’s perfectly legal for him to put any stipulations on the distribution of his assets that he wanted to.” Evan paused and looked at each of them. “You don’t have to do any of it, of course. But,” he continued just as Cori tried to take a deep breath, “you then all give up all stake in the company and have nothing more to do with Carmichael Enterprises.”

Which was exactly what Cori wanted. But that didn’t matter. If she had to jump through a couple of hoops for Ava to inherit, she’d jump. And she’d freaking smile while she did it too. So there, Dad.

Cori practiced one of those I’m-totally-good-with-whatever smiles right then. “Okay, fine. I’m always up for anything. What are these stipulations?”

“Here.” Brynn slid a piece of paper toward Cori.

For a second, Cori flashed back to calculus class in high school. Brynn was a master note-taker. And Cori…wasn’t. But it took only a quick glance to show that the handwriting on the paper was not Brynn’s. It was their father’s.

Instantly, Cori’s throat got tight. That was stupid. It wasn’t like he’d written her lots of—or really any—cards and letters over the years. But maybe that’s why seeing his handwriting hurt now—because she hadn’t seen a lot of it over the years. And now she wouldn’t be seeing it again. She cleared her throat and shook that off. “What’s this?”

“Dad’s note,” Brynn said. “The way this all got started. It’s actually a pretty good summary.”

It was a fairly small piece of paper and Cori felt a little better. He couldn’t have fit too many demands on something that size.

“There are a lot more details and, of course, it’s written more…officially… in the trust,” Evan said. “But yeah, that’s the first note your dad made about all of this. And it does cover the basics.”

Cori looked up, hearing a gruffness in Evan’s voice. He seemed a little choked up. Okay, that was unexpected. She hadn’t realized that the attorney had been close to Rudy personally, but it seemed clear that Evan was feeling sentimental about the note.

She swallowed hard and made herself focus on the paper.

It was definitely Rudy’s handwriting. But there wasn’t anything like “My dearest Ava” or “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was sick” or “I wish we’d had more time.” It was, more or less, a list. There were five main numbered points. Then there were some small notes written around each. Some words had been underlined or crossed out in red and other words were highlighted in yellow.

It took only a few seconds to read. And then a few seconds more for her to realize that she’d been wrong. He’d fit a lot onto that four by six inch piece of paper.

Move to Bliss. 1 year. Live in house together.

Run pie shop. Profit by year end.

AVA- kitchen, baking, all products. NO business! Date a guy from Bliss. Give it 6 mos. Have fun. No checklists!

BRYNN- customers/waitress. Time with people, get to know them. No kitchen, no business. Date 6 guys from Bliss.

CORI- books/accounting. No baking. Leave customers to B. Make a commitment. But NO DATING for 6 mos.!

Cori read it three times. Finally she looked up. She had no idea which thing to focus on first. It was all equally bizarre.

Except…it wasn’t.

Not completely. Not the part about Ava having fun. And the part about Brynn spending time with people. And, yeah, even the part about Cori making a commitment. None of that was bizarre. It was all stuff that she and her sisters were not so great at.

The only thing that made it weird was that Rudy had realized it.

“You’re telling me that this is what Dad said we had to do before we can inherit?” she asked the room.

“Yes. Basically,” Evan confirmed. “Like I mentioned, there are a few more details in the trust itself, but… yeah.”

Cori looked at her sisters. Ava looked pissed and Brynn looked worried. Dammit, she’d brought whipped cream and sprinkles to avoid those looks today. She glanced at Evan. He looked concerned and maybe just a little…curious. About her reaction? She wondered what he’d expected.

“You actually put all of this—” She pointed to the note. “—into a legal document?”

Evan glanced at Ava, then back at Cori. “Um. Yeah.”

“And we have to do all of this or we lose the company.”

“Yes.”

Cori looked at the note again. Rudy wanted her to do accounting and not date? She wasn’t really the sit-at-a-desk-with-spreadsheets type. And she definitely wasn’t the sit-at-home-with-Netflix-on-a-Saturday-night type. She had a tendency to, well, not stick. Not to jobs, not to places, not to relationships. So, yeah, she kind of understood why a typical, concerned father might feel the need to do something drastic to change all that. Like tie her sisters’ happiness…and twelve and a half billion dollars… to her settling down for a year.